In the Valley | Page 5

and Holland. Civilization lay that way, and all the luxurious
things which, being shown or talked of by travellers, made our own
rough life seem ruder still by contrast.
Turning to the right I looked on the skirts of savagery. Some few
adventurous villages of poor Palatine-German farmers and traders there
were up along the stream, I knew, hidden in the embrace of the
wilderness, and with them were forts and soldiers But these latter did
not prevent houses being sacked and their inmates tomahawked every
now and then.
It astonished me, that, for the sake of mere furs and ginseng and potash,
men should be moved to settle in these perilous wilds, and subject their
wives and families to such dangers, when they might live in peace at
Albany, or, for that matter, in the old countries whence they came. For
my part, I thought I would much rather be oppressed by the Grand
Duke's tax-collectors, or even be caned now and again by the Grand
Duke himself, than undergo these privations and panics in a savage
land. I was too little then to understand the grandeur of the motives
which impelled men to expatriate themselves and suffer all things
rather than submit to religious persecution or civil tyranny. Sometimes
even now, in my old age, I feel that I do not wholly comprehend it. But
that it was a grand thing, I trust there can be no doubt.
While I still stood on the brow of the hill, my young head filled with
these musings, and my heart weighed down almost to crushing by the
sense of vast loneliness and peril which the spectacle of naked
marsh-lands and dark, threatening forests inspired, the sound of the
chopping ceased, and there followed, a few seconds later, a great swish
and crash down the hill.
As I looked to note where the tree had fallen, I saw Mr. Stewart lay
down his axe, and take into his hands the gun which stood near by. He
motioned to me to preserve silence, and himself stood in an attitude of
deep attention. Then my slow ears caught the noise he had already
heard--a mixed babel of groans, curses, and cries of fear, on the road to
the westward of us, and growing louder momentarily.
After a minute or two of listening he said to me, "It is nothing. The
cries are German, but the oaths are all English--as they generally are."
All the same he put his gun over his arm as he walked down to the
stockade, and out through the gate upon the road, to discover the cause

of the commotion.
Five red-coated soldiers on horseback, with another, cloaked to the
eyes and bearing himself proudly, riding at their heels; a negro
following on, also mounted, with a huge bundle in his arms before him,
and a shivering, yellow-haired lad of about my own age on a pillion
behind him; clustering about these, a motley score of poor people,
young and old, some bearing household goods, and all frightened out of
their five senses--this is what we saw on the highway.
What we heard it would be beyond my power to recount. From the
chaos of terrified exclamations in German, and angry cursing in
English, I gathered generally that the scared mob of Palatines were all
for flying the Valley, or at the least crowding into Fort Johnson, and
that the troopers were somewhat vigorously endeavoring to reassure
and dissuade them.
Mr. Stewart stepped forward--I following close in his rear--and began
phrasing in German to these poor souls the words of the soldiers,
leaving out the blasphemies with which they were laden. How much he
had known before I cannot guess, but the confidence with which he told
them that the French and Indian marauders had come no farther than
the Palatine Village above Fort Kouarie, that they were but a small
force, and that Honikol Herkimer had already started out to drive them
back, seemed to his simple auditors born of knowledge. They at all
events listened to him, which they had not done to the soldiers, and
plied him with anxious queries, which he in turn referred to the
mounted men and then translated their sulky answers. This was done to
such good purpose that before long the wiser of the Palatines were
agreed to return to their homes up the Valley, and the others had
become calm.
As the clamor ceased, the soldier whom I took to be an officer removed
his cloak a little from his face and called out gruffly:
"Tell this fellow to fetch me some brandy, or whatever cordial is to be
had in this God-forgotten country, and stir his bones about it, too!"
To speak to Mr. Thomas Stewart in this fashion! I